Mariah Carey slams ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ copyright lawsuit
Mariah Carey has fired back at a California federal lawsuit over her holiday standard All I Want for Christmas Is You, calling a country singer’s claim that she copied his band’s song of the same name “not only false but frivolous.”
Carey, her label Sony Music and her song’s publisher Universal Music Group told the court on Wednesday (Jan 17) that her hit and Vince Vance and the Valiants’ All I Want for Christmas Is You are “completely different,” and that the claim was “outrageous and insulting.”
Carey also argued that the band’s song was itself copied from an earlier song – Bobby Vinton’s 1964 hit My Heart Belongs Only to You.
Representatives for the plaintiffs, Carey and the record companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Andy Stone, who performs as Vince Vance, and his co-writer Troy Powers filed the lawsuit last November. They said that Carey’s song copied their song’s “extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury” and other lyrical and musical elements, requesting at least US$20 million in damages.
Vince Vance and the Valiants released their All I Want for Christmas Is You in 1989, and it reached the billboard country charts during holiday seasons in the 1990s. Carey’s song appeared on her 1994 album Merry Christmas and has since become a popular standard, topping the billboard Hot 100 chart every holiday season since 2019.
Carey said on Wednesday that Stone’s song was “obscure and obviously different” from her own. Her court filing said that Stone’s case “absurdly” relies on “both songs’ references – like untold Christmas songs before them – to snow, mistletoe, presents under Christmas trees, and wanting a loved one for Christmas” as well as other “generalised and unprotectable themes.”
Stone filed and later withdrew a similar lawsuit against Carey in Louisiana in 2022. – REUTERS
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